Book Review - Donorboy

Donorboy by Brendan Halpin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I found myself slowly, but unerringly, falling for both the teen heroine, Rosalind, and her new-found father, Sean the "donorboy" of the title. For fourteen years Rosalind lived with her Mom and her Mommy, until an accident killed them both, and the guy whose donation at the sperm bank started her existence steps for ward to claim her.

She doesn't want him. She hates God, the fates, everything that took her from her life. He has his own family drama, something that made him look at her and see himself. Not in face or genetics, but in shared pain and loss. And that ends up making them perfect for each other.

The best thing about this book is that it wasn't a "Rosalind has two mommies" story. It was a story about family, because both Rosalind and her father have a lot of growing up to do. And thought he worries that he will be the same kind of father his old-man was, it is his daughter who shows him that even the old man has changed, so maybe he better do the same. 

The story is told through diary entries, emails, IM's, and each character is a little freeer about baring their soul because so much of it is done long-distance. Slowly, one crisis after another, Sean bonds with the child he loved from the first moment he saw her in the maternity ward, and Rosalind learns that the pain of loss may never end, but she can face it, and maybe even be okay.

Note, I found this book in the adult shelf of my library. This really belongs where teens can find it. It speaks to both the young and the old.


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